Liam Parker, 25-year-old billionaire. Arrogant, handsome, ruthless, the only thing he cares about is his son and his work. Bella Adams, a simple and bubbly 24-year-old girl, who lives in an orphanage. What will happen when Bella arrives as babysitter for Liam's son? This is the summary of one of the thousands of stories that flood the youth section of the Wattpad platform under headings such as dangerous relationships, bad boy, spicy stories... They are followed by millions of young readers around the world, who like titles. as revealing as If you tell me no, From torture to love, Twisted pleasures or You are mine. In the top ten of the printed books most read by young people (the ones, rather) is a delicate protagonist, a dragon rider, in love with a dark character full of secrets. She is the antiheroine of the Empyrean saga by the North American Rebecca Yarros, the romance that is all the rage among young women, hooked on a novel full of romantic tension, explicit sex and a lot of violence. And since After, by Anna Todd, burst onto the lists of best-selling books among young people around the world in 2013, the dark and toxic romance has only climbed in youth literature, and although the Editorials present them within the diffuse categories of new adult or young adult, the truth is that they are read at increasingly younger ages.
“We tell girls that they can be and do anything, and that makes them feel a great responsibility. These girls put incredible pressure on themselves: at university, at school... That's why many read to escape. And these are escape novels. Someone comes and takes care of everything for you: they will make everything okay if there is danger, they will buy you the best car and the best clothes... Whatever, but you know that it is fantasy, like vampires and werewolves or the witches.” This is the opinion of best-seller Tracy Wolff, American author of the popular Crave series, another romance starring gargoyles, vampires, werewolves, dragons and witches, all of them students at Kartmere Institute, a school for students with supernatural powers. And she is not the only bestseller who defends the escape route. So does Ana Huang, one of the young flagship writers of the romantic spicy, a booming trend supported by booktokers that has led Huang to sell more than three million books around the world. “What I like in real life is far from what I like in books. In books I prefer drama, danger... It's a safe way to explore things that I wouldn't want to experience in real life. For example: I really like alpha, morally gray heroes, but in real life I prefer someone more sensitive and thoughtful,” says the author of Twisted love (Planet), a series full of bad boys with questionable morality, but capable to melt the hearts of its protagonists and readers. She, however, and unlike Wolff (a former English teacher), hesitates when asked if she would let her future daughters read her novels: “Oh, wow, well, I don't know. “I prohibit it from my mother, for example,” she says honestly. Shame? "No. It is because she coerces my creativity, especially when I write the sexual scenes.” But Huang defends tooth and nail the protagonists of her novels, even if they fall in love with billionaires with sky-high libido: “They may seem submissive, but they are the ones who have the power, not the men. They can say no at any time. The relationship exists simply because they consent.”
The Venezuelan Ariana Godoy, author, among others, of the Hidalgo Brothers Trilogy (Penguin Random House), is at 33 years old one of the most valued authors of romance written in the Latin language. She emerged precisely from the Wattpad platform, where her followers numbered in the millions. Godoy shares with Wolff the idea that toxic relationships should not be idealized in books, although she acknowledges that she also flirts with the dark side in her novels. “Readers can enjoy the clichés, the tension and the problems of a toxic or healthy relationship and then close the book, leave it there and that's it,” she reflects. But she adds: “A single type of relationship is not very limiting in terms of creativity and also takes away a bit of realism from the stories because, although we would like all relationships to be healthy, that is not the case.”
The power of first love, the idea that someone will appear and do anything for you, the heroine saving the bad kids... “These are very powerful ideas,” acknowledges Tracy Wolf, who cites Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray to make Note that they are also claims that transcend the strictly youthful. However, this retired professor does not lose sight of who her target audience is: “Writing for young people is a privilege, but also a great responsibility, and the last thing I want in life is to romanticize a relationship that could be dangerous.” Are there limits, then, in fiction? “The truth is that I have never thought about limits, perhaps I will have them when I come to consider some issues in the future. For now, I am guided more by the story I want to tell and I make sure to tell it in a genuine and responsible way, even if they are characters with questionable morals,” Godoy concludes.
